Historical voicesOn the Valice list
1789–1872
A pioneer of comparative folklore, and the author of The Fairy Mythology.
On the Valice list. 2 titles published by Valice Press carry Thomas Keightley’s work; they are below.
Biography
Irish writer and folklorist (1789–1872), born in Dublin and settled in London from 1824. He came to literature, by his own account, because his fortune was gone and ill health shut him out of the professions, and he lived by writing school histories. Helping T. Crofton Croker gather the Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland led him to write The Fairy Mythology (1828), the first attempt in English to set the fairy beliefs of Europe side by side. It was translated into German at once; Jacob Grimm wrote commending it. He is also, unusually for his century, a collector who admitted in print that some of the material he helped produce had been improved for effect.
Works
Timeline
1803
Entered Trinity College, Dublin; he left without a degree, and poor health ended his plans for the Irish Bar.
1824
Settled in London and began to live by literary and journalistic work.
1825
Contributed tales to Thomas Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland, which led him to a book of his own.
1828
Published The Fairy Mythology; a German translation followed the same year and Jacob Grimm is said to have praised it.
1837
Took up a series of school histories at the urging of Thomas Arnold of Rugby, among them a History of England (1837–39).
1872
Died, aged 83.
Why they are here
The Fairy Mythology set the fairy beliefs of Europe beside each other, with stories, sources and commentary, and treated resemblances between tales with caution rather than assuming they must have travelled. It is a standard early work on the subject in English.
Regarded as an important pioneer of comparative folklore. The Fairy Mythology went through several editions in the nineteenth century and was reissued in 1978 as The World Guide to Gnomes, Fairies, Elves and Other Little People; his schoolbooks were adopted at Rugby and other public schools.
On the Valice list
Volume I · Persia, Romance, the Eddas, Scandinavia, Germany — Keightley’s 1850 Text, Annotated, with a Register of What He Translated, Collected, Read and Only Concluded
Thomas Keightley, Emre Doğan
Volume II · Britain, Ireland, Brittany, France and the South — Keightley’s 1850 Text, Annotated, with a Register of What He Translated, Collected, Read and Only Concluded
Thomas Keightley, Emre Doğan
These are titles by or of Thomas Keightley.
Nearby on the shelf
These are Valice Press titles from the same part of the library. They are not by Thomas Keightley, and they are not a recommendation on Thomas Keightley’s behalf — only the same shelf.
A World Bestiary: 112 Legendary Creatures from 40 Traditions — Beasts, Spirits, and Guardians of World Folklore
Emre Doğan
Thirty Creation Myths from Every Corner of the Earth, Told Whole
Emre Doğan
Eighteen Trickster Tales from Eleven Traditions, and What Each One Cost
Emre Doğan
Volume One: The Vedic Gods — 5 Chapters Complete in the 1913 Text, Annotated, with a Register Grading the Author's Comparisons and a Who's-Who of 32 Figures with Verified Chapter References
Emre Doğan
Related authors
Sources
Everything on this page about Thomas Keightley is written from these sources, not from memory. Their dates and key claims were checked against the sources on 8 October 2026.The life dates are compared across Wikidata and the Library of Congress’s authority records.
